Megan Letham
Golden Age
Ancient greece, although imperfect, strove toward perfection in all the right ways, and deserves to be categorized as a Golden Age in history. Grecian art and craftsmanship most definitely capture a divine essence of civilization. Essentially the golden age, refers to a time of peace, harmony, stability and prosperity. Greece proved most influential towards a state like this, shown by a number of divine discoveries and inventions such as their pottery, sculptures, theatre, the olympics, architecture, contribution to mathematics, democracy, and philosophy. Of course Greek civilization had conflict and political issues as well, but their ways of life were most ideal at the core, and worthy of our romanticism.
Their extravagant sense of art was a key influence which made greece so beautiful and romantic. The Greeks had a view of the world which was realistic and extremely gorgeous and glorified. Admiration of the human form and of reality was demonstrated in excruciating detail. They learned the beautiful symmetry of the human body and combined the mathematics and angles of it to create masterpiece sculptures. Such specimens emulate values such as individualism, reality, athleticism, beauty, glory, strength and ability. They were creative yet extremely observant and detail oriented. Also ancient theatre provides insight into the thoughts of what the people were actually thinking in terms of humour and opinions, rather than factual accounts of what has happened. They incorporated the real world into fictitious stories as a commentary on everyday life.
The gods and goddesses at the centre of their beliefs, provided a foundation for their influential value system. They were the centre to stories of ethics and morals, as all religious figures, and reflected various qualities in people. They were either attractive and admirable (role models) or acknowledged certain aspects of human emotion such as jealousy and short-temperedness. Associating a number of gods and goddesses with certain aspects of life, resulted in being able to relate to and have a high level of respect towards life. A prime example of the importance the expenditure of what would equal one billion dollars, and the creation of the Parthenon over 15 years along with the giant statue of Athena. To have devoted so much time and effort towards pleasing these gods and learning their stories, shows they had incredibly strong these values were. In times so early and simple, the earth provided for them and they were able to devote their time towards noble causes such as education and religious ceremony.
Important strides in literacy and history were made in ancient Greece. Homer wrote the Iliad and the Odyssey, during the times of the Trojan war. It combines mythology, legend and religion to create an epic poem reminding Greece of their glory. He exceptionalised Greece’s values, language and writing in the Golden Age, the beginning of a so-called enlightenment. Homer created some of the most interesting and influential literary pieces during that period. Moreover, Herodotus the historian, discovered that we could learn from what is happening and that it’s important in the progression of society to acknowledge the past and tell the stories of our ancestors. He created his laws of history; the law of blame, law of revenge, happiness never remains, don’t assume position thats not yours, and law of moderation. This explained events such as the Persian war. Herodotus also believed that memory is identity, and that people are who they are, because of events which cause growth and change, and remembering the past is necessary.
Philosophers such as Plato, showed a large degree of innovation, and a respect for the pursuit of knowledge in the journey of life. The Cave analogy hypothesised that certain information is hidden or potentially unapparent, and in order to exceed one's capability, one must exit the cave of falsehood to discover “the one truth” for themselves. He said that improvements upon society can occur by becoming these enlightened people. He believed that the soul ultimately had the knowledge, but by persevering and risking looking like a fool, and forcing the way out of a habit, it can attain it. He had ideas back then, which seem so intuitive, yet we still don’t completely reinforce them today. Another fundamental idea was “Tableness”, an example expanding upon the idea of striving towards truth. According to his logic, our job as humans, is to approximate the perfection of the “one truth” which is unattainable and not completely fathomable. People are all at different stages of understanding the perfect table, but all rational people have the idea of what it is we should be striving towards. These are all incredibly insightful and revolutionary philosophical concepts.
Education was increasing and innovating in many ways in ancient Greece. And in terms of education, Socrates was a revolutionary. He loved to educate young men and had very radical ideas. He taught many students such as Plato, who were profoundly influenced by him and glorified him. He laid down groundwork for western systems of logic and philosophy, developing the Socratic Method. This emphasizes the importance of inquiry and discussion between individuals in order to stimulate critical thinking. Socrates believed that in order to achieve practical results for the well-being of society, human choice was motivated by the desire for happiness and ultimate wisdom comes from knowing oneself. He believed that this translated into politics, and he challenged the concept of democracy. He was eventually killed because he was believed to represent the authoritarian principles of the spartans. His ideas were amazing though, and the concept of questioning a governmental structure, and emphasis of critical thinking and discussion is very innovative and courageous.
We as humans, love to romanticise and idealise that which is righteous and that which we reach towards. Humans are nostalgic of the “golden” past and yet simultaneously strive for innovation. The society of ancient Greece emulates so many of these attributes which civilization has always strived towards, and yet it was simple in the aspect that the world was young and had far-less intricate problems that it does now. Although going through enormous amounts of struggle, it must be recognized that Greek culture remained for thousands of years, and many of their ideas are even reflected and glorified in modern times for a reason. With the enormous amount of divine inspiration, and motivation to become enlightened, there is no doubt that ancient Greece emulates a Golden Age.
